Today I’d like to share a really useful social business deck created by Michael Brito for Edelman Digital, promoting his new book ‘Smart Business, Social Business’.

Then I’d like to make some suggestions about how we can broaden that concept of social business to become something a little more, well, physical.

Brito’s slides provide an admirably clear and comprehensive overview of the evolution and anatomy of social business. They outline the industry’s progression from social customer to social brand to social business, and include some good basics around social organisation models, governance and training frameworks.

However.

To be a fully social business, you have to be social on and offline. There is an assumption in these slides that ‘social’ means ‘social media’ (whether you’re using it as an internal tool or for consumer engagement), when of course social media is just one channel businesses can use to be social, both inside and out. Take a look:

Brito makes a great start here, but don’t forget that a fully social business will also have to look at things like:

• Helping staff to be more social offline – getting them regularly interacting face to face with consumers and each other
• Embedding a knowledge of what ‘being social’ and ‘word of mouth’ means beyond social media so that the attitude and effort that goes into the virtual presences and intranet translates into every area of the business
• Understanding and using social catalysts such as observational learning, authenticity, gaming and disruption in everything you do – be that in the retail store, in the staff kitchen, or on Facebook

Another important qualification I would make to Brito’s definitions is that social businesses facilitate people being social with each other, not just with the business itself. This is essential because the most valuable, trusted and behaviour-changing sharing occurs between people and people, not between people and brands.

That’s our take on social business. Questions? Thoughts?

Tags: social business, social media, word of mouth